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Focus Cayo '08 (the one with Ultegra)
Ribble alu road (for the turbo trainer/shitty days)
anonymous steel frame fixed (for the commute)
rubbish mountain bike (for the odd day when we get 8 inches of snow)
even more rubbish mountain bike
Puch Bergmeister frame waiting for a spray and build up

I don't think it was like that. As the commentators were saying, Impey was moving across and Bos was gonna get squeezed into the fence. He was trying to stop that, apparently. I would've shouldered him the other way, but then you risk taking down more people. I dunno, it looks well dodgy but they're not going to do anything because it wasn't malicious.. he was just trying to save himself from the barriers that Impey was forcing him into. They would've been doing more like 50+ at that stage.

I dont know - there doesnt appear to be many riders immediately behind - and getting squeezed up does happen, you would have thought discretion was the better part of valour and he would have let him come across. If he had to back off and someone behind touched his wheel he might have still stayed upright - but to drag him right across in front, that is quite something.

Yeah. That's the one. I don't quite know what he was hoping to achieve by dragging him in front of his own bike other than he 's got something soft to hit now instead of the fence. :)

Looking at it in slo-mo its just insane - as you say he must have known he was going down with him, at what, 35 - 40 kph or something like that?!! He must really fucking hate him. I haven't really followed that race - what did he do to deserve that?

It was Theo Bos! Fucking 'ell. They're not taking action but it looked pretty clear he grabbed his jersey and pushed him into the fence.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

This one right? Bang to rights, fucking outrageous.

wait till you have a broken rib and bronchitis, you know when you are going to have a coughing fit and you know its going to hurt like fuck, that was a bastard when I had that

I was going to say the exact same thing - just pray you dont get a cold and/or hayfever in the next 3 or 4 weeks. I'm not sure what hurts more - trying to hold the cough in or the cough itself. My experience was that the rib(s) hurt for a good couple of months - but the first couple of weeks were by far and away the worst - like you're finding out, there isn't a great deal that involves any sort of bodily movement that will not induce a twinge. I hope you have an understanding girlfriend/boyfriend/goat/doll*.

*or all of the above

This touches on the wider issues here, the police are actively making protesting a daunting enterprise for people who aren't prepared to be detained without charge for 8 or 10 hours - and when held in these kettled areas having police charge them with batons and shields - it is genuinely eroding the right to protest, this is very very dangerous.

Totally agree. In essence this tactic is designed to discourage the demonstration from ever occuring - the whole "if you're in the area you are going to get detained for 5 hours against your will" thing will deter the vast majority of law abiding protesters. The right to lawful protest is a sacred thing in a democracy - I'm not sure this right is being treated with the sanctity it deserves. I still remember vividly the anti-Chinese protest on the mall some years ago and how it was handled.

Does anyone know if anyone detained in this fashion previously (may day etc.) has attempted an unlawful dention action? I assume provision is made for it in the public order act.

ISTR reading somewhere that if cyclists needed compulsory 3rd party insurance, it would cost something like 50p/year. So the costs of collecting and administering would far outweigh the funds collected.

Well no - they'd simply add on the overheads plus the profit margin and you'd pay the total of all of the above. Its called "cost plus" pricing. It'd still be cheap as fuck though.

Of course membership of something like BC (silver +) or CTC membership provides 3rd party cover amongst other benefits. I realise joining BC or CTC may be an anathema to many though....

Could you please post a google maps link, I can't find a Chalkpit hill.

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.270937,-0.013475&spn=0.026366,0.077248&z=14 Chalkpit Lane is the road name.

I still think Chalkpit is worse, from memory. The severity of climbs is about more than steepness alone.
I'd agree - Chalkpit is a beast - first time I went there with a few friends we got a bit lost and ended up in a nearby housing estate and had to stop and ask an old boy for directions - "you boys don't want to go that way" he said "its 1 in 4 you know". Heh. Titsey is nothing in comparison.

Im after a 65mm reach dual pivot front caliper for a conversion I'm about to start. Got an old single pivot wienmann and the flex is hideous...

Even if you do it 10 peeps at a time, how many groups will actually make it through with out hassle from do good peds or the po po. I dont want to sound like a grumpy old git, but it has got out of hand and there are still people walking around on the course. So the chance of an accident at one of the busy parts of the course ie tower bridge is higher than on a normal day when its open as normal.

Jimbilly out.

http://www.met.police.uk/events/ & http://www.london-marathon.co.uk/site/images/pdfs/road_closures_09.pdf The road closures are advertised at 7am for miles 1-8 and 8am thereafter excepting the last 2 miles (vic embankment - birdcage wlk) which are scheduled for 7am. I can't see that a 6am kick off will be anything other than a legal ride on open roads unless you're a real slow fucker - the last couple of miles perhaps a slight problem. Did you have any issues last year and/or did you set off after the closures had kicked in?

Level is uncomfortable.

Any thing other than level and your arms/shoulders are brought into play to stop you sliding off the front or off the back. Pretty fucking pointless extra exertion as far I as I can see - keep your saddle level, let your legs do all the work and give your arms and arse a rest.

Its like a little window into other peoples lives

Or a window into other people's little lives

If you have managed to actually get them in place, which is an impressive work of either sanding or brute force, then there are unlikely to be any problems (except when you try to get them out again). As you say, there is plenty of meat around the clamp area of a quill stem, my only concern is how regular the shape is you have made - part of the fit of the bars relies on even contact between bar and stem clamp, if you have left a 'hot spot' i.e. bump or uneven contact, that could put pressure on a much smaller area of the bar leading to stress.

I wrapped a sheet of 600 grit around a 26mm straight bar and slid it in and out of the clamp so as to keep as round a shape as possible - in retrospect I may have look a bit odd if glimpsed from behind.

That said if you're not built like sprinter Thor Watsisname then you should be OK, the center part of Cinelli bars is sleeved anyway.

More Rasmussen than Horsveldt (sp?).

Cheers.

Uphill or downhill?

Just wondered if anyone rides a similar set-up or has any insight as to what risks I am taking.

I've had the 3TTT stem for ages - its a lovely stem with the original bolt cap etc. - not entirely sure of the model but its almost identical to the old Cinelli 1A - except for the obvious clamp size, I've been using various bars over the last few years, mainly 26mm fitting road bars. However, I recently acquired a set of Cinelli Criteriums - they were quite badly scratched around the centre ferrule so I worked the scratches out some emery paper. I measured them with a digital caliper gauge before the 'polishing out' and the centre measured 26.2mm - from what I can gather this is isn't abnormal. Obviously the polishing has taken that down a little bit - so I tried to fit them in the 3TTT stem and it was just too tight (top-bottom only, the fore-aft size is fine) - thinking that there is plenty of material in the bottom part of the clamp I went to work with the emery paper. I now have the bars fitted in the stem - and I am riding with them. I am a little nervous however - I ride 53x16 and whenever I'm forced to get up and sprint (short hills etc.) I am concious that there must be some serious dynamic loads going through the bars especially with hands on the drops - I really don't fancy catastrophic failure at the point of putting maximum effort in!

So - anyone done the same or similar or have any knowledge /insight they could share with me?

There are no laws about cycling on private property, other than common law trespass (as far as I know), which is a civil tort, not criminal (i.e. plod doesn't get to ticket you for it). I suppose that it would depend what the status of South Bank is.

Unless there is a bye-law specifically prohibiting cycling. Failure to comply with a bye-law *is *a criminal offence not a civil matter.

Sorry about that.

See, thats me on the left - " Say nothing, no need to escalate the situation, just a momentary lapse of concentration, dum de dum de dum".

Mugsy and Sparky. The big feller is still around the small guy bought the farm last October. Gutted.

Friday I rode from Romford out to Chelmsford staying off the A12 through Brentwood, Shenfield, Inagtestone etc and it's a nice combination of ups and downs. Good training for me, I don't know about anyone else.

Amen - there's even a bit of 4-5% around Brentwood. Yep, Brentwood, Essex.

You seem to forget that I'm all fine and dandy when cars/drivers go about their business safely. It's when some inbred lump of pus endangers my life that I see red.

If the person apologises when I confront them. I generally say "don't let it happen again" and carry on, calmed that they know they were wrong. If they get aggressive with me AFTER they've nearly killed me, then fuck them, it's on.

OK, your call feller. Just want us all to be safe - we all know there are some real loons out there - keep them escape routes handy.

Fuck respect.

We agree on that. I don't know where the whole respect thing came from - I don't respect them, I just ignore them.

So you pacifist lot can continue riding and ignoring every fucktard that almost takes your life while a few of us will let these cunts know their shit's not on.

Please don't confuse lack of agression with pacifism. Treating the road like the frontline of some battle between motorists and cyclists is bad for all of us and you are re-inforcing the 'tards perception that all cyclists are arseholes and we have a lot more to lose as a result.

Good route? I'm thinking of a similar route twice a week this year. Since I'm currently residing in Essex.

I obviously don't know the specific route - the scenery and roads are nice in that part of the county but it's not too challenging hill-wise round the Easters. Depends where you live but there is some decent riding Brentwood way (Warley mount etc.) if you are looking for more challenging training rides. Other than that if you're in the Chelmsford area do any loop that takes in North Hill, lt Baddow and/or Danbury.

I do all my training round mid-Essex - if you want any routes let me know - I can let you have gps routes.

The notion that it is somehow good to cycle off with a smug smile and a sense of superiority at your zen like calm in the face of murderous action

"Murderous action" implies a pre-meditated act intended to kill you - my argument is that this is very very rarely the case. The vast majority of bad drivers dont want to kill you or me - it is simply a momentary lapse of concentration or ill-judged manoeuvre and if it is acknowledged as such there is no need to escalate the situation to anything else. That is not the same as cycling of with a smug sense of zen calm - just an acceptance we all stupid things sometimes.

Here we disagree.

Hey, I'm comfortable with that - as long as you dont try and smash my windows in.

A quick and dirty attempt....